Govt to examine Instagram data scraping concerns after responses to notices, says MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan

New Delhi [India], July 9 (ANI): The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will examine concerns related to the scraping of data from public Instagram accounts to determine whether it is in accordance with the legal framework after receiving responses to notices issued in the matter, MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan said on Thursday.
"There is a lot of social media push, backlash against that, a lot of concerns within people. We will have to look at it with reference to the legal framework and whether it is in accordance with the legal framework or not. We will examine the representations, we will see in this," Krishnan told reporters on the sidelines of CII event on GCC Business Summit.
He said the ministry would await formal responses before deciding its next course of action.
"We will await a formal response to the notice that we've issued and thereafter we will take a view based on what the response is," he said.
Krishnan said the responses had not yet been received and the ministry would examine the issue after the reply deadline.
"There is still a little more time, so the replies have not yet been received. We will examine this issue," he said, adding, "I think today is the day when the reply is due."
The MeitY Secretary said two separate notices had been issued.
"There are two. The one that she asked about was the username issue because that is something which was sent to the other agencies as well. Today is the last date for that," he said.
"The other issue, of course, is on the Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) issue, for which also a separate notice has been issued. For that, there is still time before the response is due," Krishnan said.
He reiterated that the government would examine the representations received and assess the matter in accordance with the legal framework before taking a decision.
"We will examine the representations... We will await a formal response to the notice that we've issued and thereafter we will take a view based on what the response is," he said.
Krishnan's remarks came in response to questions on notices issued over the scraping of data from public Instagram accounts and related issues, including the username matter and the separate notice concerning CSAM.
He said the ministry's next course of action would depend on the responses received and their examination under the existing legal framework. (ANI)